While the British were able to accomplish abolition in the trans-Atlantic world by the end of the nineteenth century, their efforts paradoxically caused a great increase in legal and illegal slave trading in the western Indian Ocean. Bringing together essays from leading authorities in the field of slavery studies, this comprehensive work offers an original and creative study of slavery and abolition in the Indian Ocean world during this period. Among the topics discussed are the relationship between British imperialism and slavery; Islamic law and slavery; and the bureaucracy of slave trading.

Robert Harms is the Henry J. Heinz Professor of History and African Studies at Yale University. Bernard K. Freamon is professor of law at Seton Hall Law School and director of the Law School’s Zanzibar Program on Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking. David W. Blight is professor of American history and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University.

“The focus on the abolition period marks the volume as unique. It is valuable for that purpose, besides vetting very fine scholarship. I would recommend it to anyone interested in slavery, the Indian Ocean, the Islamic world, and abolition.”—Paul Lovejoy, author of Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa

“This indispensable volume should introduce readers to relatively unknown worlds, and to some outstanding scholarship about those worlds.”—Choice